PowerColor has finally unveiled their monstrous Devil 13 R9 290X graphics card and don’t let the branding fool you since the card features two Hawaii XT cores. Leaked earlier this month, the card is everything I expected from it to be, a mean and huge card that stands out in from the other Radeon R9 custom cards with a unique design and power requirements that are off the chart.

The PowerColor Radeon Devil 13 R9 290X which is also codenamed ‘Vesuvius’ (Official AMD naming) features two Hawaii XT cores with GCN 1.1 architecture. With two Hawaii XT GPUs on the same board, the specifications equate to 2816 x 2 stream processors, 176 x 2 texture mapping units, 64 x 2 Raster Operators and 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on each chip which equates to a total of 8 GB GDDR5 memory. Double these and you get an impressive 5632 stream processors, 352 TMUs and 128 ROPs for an unprecedented amount of gaming and compute performance. The 8 GB GDDR5 memory runs across a 512-Bit X 2 memory bus that is clocked at 1350 MHz effective clock speed (5.40 GHz effective clock speed). This pumps out a total of 640 GB/s memory bandwidth. The core runs at a clock speed of 1 GHz which can be further overclocked since the card is equipped with a beefy 15 Phase VRM.

The design featured on this iteration of Devil 13 is completely new compared to the previous Devil 13 cards. Featuring a massive triple slot cooler which is longer in length and much more wider compared to the stock Radeon R9 295X2. The Devil 13 R9 290X features a triple slot, triple fan design with the fans measuring an massive 100mm PWM controlled fans that circulate air through a gigantic and dense aluminum fin array which features 10 heatpipes. This shroud is huge with strikes of red and black all around the surface while a large Devil 13 backplate supports the card from behind cooling the additional power components. The backplate is a nice touch to the card.

Power requirements is where PowerColor completely goes off the charts by imposing a requirement four 8-Pin power connectors on the PCB. You heard that right, that’s the most insane power design ever built for a card giving an idea of its PCB design and power hungry nature. We know that the dual 8-Pin powered reference R9 295X2 has a TDP of 500W with dual 8-Pin connectors but we can imagine atleast a 675W requirement for this card alone.

While official pricing is still not known, the Devil 13 R9 290X will be bundled with Razer’s top of the line Ouroboros Ambidextrous mouse. The addition of mouse in the bundle may seem odd but im currently using the Ouroboros in my PC and it works absolutely well in gaming.

Whole new generation of Devil 13

The 3rd generation, Devil 13 Dual Core R9 290X, is packed with dual Hawaii XT cores, designed to tackle the most demanding HD titles. It operates at 1000MHz for core clock and 1350MHz for memory, using 512-bit X2 memory interface with 8GB of GDDR5 memory, breaking out the limitation of extremely gaming performance. The Devil 13 Dual Core R9 290X is built with carefully-design Platinum Power Kit and ultra-efficient thermal design. It consists of massive 15-phase power delivery, PowerIRstage, Super Cap and Ferrite Core Choke, providing the stability and reliability for such high-end graphics solution. To qualify for Devil 13, it utilizes efficient trio fan design with Double Blades, two pieces of large die-cast panel, total 10pcs of heat pipes, and enormous surface of aluminum cooling fin, achieving a perfect balance between thermal solution and noise reduction. We add several features which are gamers exclusive. The Devil 13 backlighting glows a bright red color with the logo pulsating slowly, delivering exceptional outlook; the Dual BIOS button design allows germs to pursuit extreme performance in the easiest way; 4 units of 8 pin PCI-E power connector draw more power, offering constant and stable power input. What’s more, to honor Devil 13 users, we bundle our latest Devil 13 with the most top-notch gaming mouse, the Razer Ouroboros. We believe our Devil 13 users are deserved to have the best.

Turbo Timer & Double Blades

Except Devil 13 Dual Core R9 290X, we’re going to demo our patent pending device, Turbo Timer, which is designed to keep the graphics card cooler running for a pre-specified period after the PC powered off. Furthermore, for the revolutionary fan design Double Blades, we’re going to show you how it works to generate most airflow than other fan designs.

Please visit Nangang Exhibition Hall, #404 meeting room and get impressed by new technologies introduced by PowerColor at Computex 2014!